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This is for those story writers out there
thomasrum
Member Posts: 15 Arc User
I have in recent months become interested in writing stories for my characters, I'd like to know what in your mind is some of the most over-used back story elements that folks out there in the game have used for their characters?
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If you feel it's your prerogative to harp on this question, don't waste your time.
If you feel it's your prerogative to harp on this question, don't waste your time.
Post edited by thomasrum on
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In no particular order:
It's important to note, though, that any one of these by itself is a perfectly fine backstory that offers some interest and possible future storylines (Worf being a sole survivor of a disaster, Data being the only one of his kind [until story happened a little later]). What you want to avoid isn't necessarily overused backstory elements, but having too many overused backstory elements.
I Support Disco | Disco is Love | Disco is Life
1. If wearing this outfit with this colour hair, then the Mirror Universe version of this character.
2. If wearing this outfit with this colour hair, then the future version of this character.
3. If short, then the past version of this character.
4. Direct descendant of a character from the shows/movies, such as Thomas Riker's grandson....
5. Gorn manipulated with dinosaur DNA to make him into a fire-breathing dragon. (Yes. I have seen this.)
/end rant....
My Ship Builds: USS Conqueror, HMS Victorious, HMS Concord, ISS Queen Elizabeth, Black Widow III
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I'm sure there is Emotional Vulcans as well like the ones in Enterprise. My advice is try and be unique but something that is open to future story lines. Unfortunately my fanfiction for ST is one of those that is a overused storyline with a element of time travel but then again it is based on a PBEM E sim I was in so some of the characters have a storyline that wasn't given by me but has been enhanced when I got permission of the character creator.
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Well, like jexsamx said, few of these things make for a bad story in and of themselves. There's a reason certain story elements get overused - they work and can create interesting scenarios. But a lot of them tend to lead into each other easily, which leads towards cliche pretty quickly. It's not a matter of not using them, but using them sparingly and using them well. Knowing you're using them is a good first step.
This character is why I don't play my Romulan any more. Tovan Khev is NOT my BFF! Get him off my bridge!
Complexity is the thing. It's not about the specific backstory elements, but rather about how they interact and effect each other. Each such element is merely a sort of network node, and it's the network structure that makes the character, not the nodes.
A lot of writers (especially amateur & fanfic) treat backstory elements like the one's discussed above as the building blocks of character development. Like a child's alphabet blocks, they think if you just stack the right ones in the right order it adds up to something good/interesting. This is false.
If you want to write a good character, stop thinking in terms what they are or what they did or what happened to them, instead think in terms of how their thinking patterns and perceptions have been effected by these things throughout their life, and all the different ways these different lines and splashes of perception, reaction, bias, belief, emotion, etc all interact with each other. Don't think of it as a static system either: think of it as an energetic soup where every little meme is constantly moving, bouncing off others, recombining, shattering, mutating etc as they collide in different circumstances throughout the character's backstory AND during the story at hand. This Brownian motion of psychological causality is what makes a complex, lifelike, and interesting character.
Once you start thinking about the interactions instead of the events themselves, the events become somewhat interchangeable. You think of the network structure you want first, then work out what nodes you need where to create that shape.
This is not quite the same as imagining a persona, then isolating distinct rationalizations for it's parts. Again: complexity is what makes it real. You want subnets of causality and interaction that are layers deep and laterally inter- and extra-connected, never just a single direct 1/1 cause/effect relationship. 1/1 trait/cause relationships are nodes, not subnets.
As a corollary, your character doesn't necessarily need "interesting" nodes in their network for the network (and thus the character) to be interesting. Bad guy's a misogynist? A bias towards bitter reflection + bad romantic history + tendency to blame others for own failures + bases too much of his personal identity on his "manliness"... or was simply "abused by his mum". That's a four node subnet, each "mundane" node with it's own implied subnet below it, vs. one "interesting" node with nothing below it. Furthermore each of those nodes and subnets have their own respective broad effects in other situations (and subnets) unrelated to the misogyny node, helping him appear coherently complex instead of just a shallow grab bag of traits, and which also help you as a writer determine his actions/reactions and dialog in different circumstances. This is why flashy OTT traits like the one's people list above tend to come off as cheap, shallow, or trying too hard.
Which is not to say you can't add flashy traits, just that you have be relatively parsimonious in their use, and not use them as a crutch to avoid developing a fully complex network.
If that all sounds complicated and a lot of work, well, yeah. Real people are that complicated, so if you want your character to feel real, then you gotta make 'em complicated. There are no tricks, no shortcuts. Bad characters are always the result of someone in some way avoiding that work, either out of ignorance or laziness or both. Always.
Scar from a young incident.
My main toon, Stunshock, went off as part of a Rite Of Age, where he went into the wilderness to skin some wild animals that are feroucious. This is something all children of his species goes through to enter adulthood. A week later, he comes back with his animal skins and scars on his cheek, from where the animals clawed him. But, during the Rite, he hallucinated that he had a greater calling. It was something he never forgot, and the scars were a constant reminder through his young adult life, ultimately lead to him selling his farm and joining Starfleet.
I also have an emotional Vulcan, caused by 'the sole survivor of (x)', in this case, a shuttle crash. Her mother shielded her from teh crash, which is why she was the only one left. This was when she was barely a baby. With only the ship's computer for company, she didn't go through any of the traditional training, but found the books and the films The Lord Of The Rings in the computer databanks, and became entranced by the Elves, partly due to their similarity to Vulcans. So she named herself after her favourite character, Arwen.
My Klingon is a xenophobe, as he hates all the new species that are in the Empire, and one time a Gorn officer ignored orders and nearly got the whole team killed. That leads to interesting actions among his crew, as he clearly favours the Klingon officers on his ship.
The trick isn't to avoid things that regularly happen, but ask how do these events influence who your character is. That is how you make a rich character.
Something I have noted happened a lot in bios as well. The Captain and the First Officer are a couple.
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
KDF toon is a female Klingon named Vas. She was a criminal street rat, born to no notable house. Was conscripted as part of an urban renewal police sweep. Performed well as a soldier, and made it into the KDF spec-ops infantry units- the KDF equivelent of Spetznaz or whatnot. Performed well there too, eventually making platoon leader. Ended up receiving a freak battlefield promotion to command the BOB transporting her unit during the Gorn invasion war. In the chaos, it took months for the high command to notice, by which time she'd built a power base by grooming members of her platoon to "accidentally" take ship commands of their own. That stopped once they were aware of her. They let her keep her command, but took measures to prevent further promotion. She is regarded by most in the high command as an unpredictable psychopath, with a tactlessness that should make her politically suicidal (all these by Klingon standards, no less), but her aptitude as a spec-ops commander has created intense loyalty in those under her. High command tries to keep her on a very tight leash, fearing she'll either pull a Kruge and go squirreling off on potentially disastrous missions of her own devising, or start plotting some way of breaking or working around her rank cap, but as long as the war with the feds is still hot, she's too valuable as a surgical strike asset to just outright get rid of. Every time they send her and her "sons" out on a mission, they secretly hope she won't make it back.
As for mine;
Federation Toon:
Name: Heyerdahl Stark
Species: Andorian
Gender: Male
Birth Location: Ocelot National Park, City of Quarth, Southern Hemisphere
Birth Planet: Epsilon Indi IV
Current Age: 31
Born on the Andorian colony of Epsilon Indi IV in the Federation year 2382. Stark joined the cadet ranks of the Andorian Imperial Guard once turned nineteen years of age. Here he spent almost six years training as a support engineer for various Imperial Warships and Cruisers.
Come 2407, feeling jaded with his position, Stark resigned from the Imperial Guard and applied to Starfleet Academy with the intention of learning more about the internal workings of starship operations and knowing that such a career would also work out an expedition into the stars; something of which was lacked within the Imperial Guard which acted more as a homefront.
Having enrolled at Starfleet Academy and surpassing his engineering career exam expectations, Stark's big break would come later that year following a Borg attack on Vega Colony. Stark was one of several officers who helped support key stations onboard the USS Khitomer when defending against a Borg boarding party.
Such notice would later be brought to the attention of Admiral Quinn, who, at the suggestion of Starks' superiors, granted Stark a command of his own; the first of which was the starship Spectre. Since that time, Stark has become a commendable officer within the fleet, currently commanding one of Starfleets fine Assault Cruisers.
And my
Klingon Toon:
Name: Bra'tac, Son of Ronac
Species: Klingon
Gender: Male
Birth Location: Voodieh Suburbs, G'Kar City, 4th Continent
Birth Planet: Mempa IV
Current Age: 35
A proud warrior from a distinguished house within the Empire.
Born on Mempa IV, Bra'tac joined the Imperial Forces around 2340 following the footsteps of his father and elder brother; the latter of who holds position on the Ty Go Kor Defence Platform orbiting Qo'nos. Ronac, the father of Bra'tac lost his life during a failed assault on Cardassian-Dominion shipyards orbiting Monac IV during the Federation-Dominion War.
Since joining the Empire, Bra'tac has risen through the ranks with admiration, and has become both a respected and valiant warrior. Although proud, honourable and loyal to the foundation of the Empire, Bra'tac is weary of J'mpok and his war with the Federation; especially when other threats from the Tholian Assembly, Borg Collective and Undine exist, not to mention the rumoured looming threat of the Iconian.
Presently, Bra'tac and his crew patrol the Klingon borders, often exchanging fire with Cardassian and Tholian vessels which stray too far into restricted zones. Due to the respect Bra'tac has for the Federation as a society, stray Starfleet vessels are often given a verbal warning before more hostile measures are taken to extradite the unwelcome visitors; other intruders ultimately being met with weapons fire and no verbal communication at all.
I think far too many try to make their character extra special by using the examples already mentioned, and not enough try to make their character special through their limitations. Reg Barclay is a great example of a superb character who had numerous character flaws, yet, he was a good officer, and a fabulous character.
If you want to have an emotional Vulcan, you could make this someone whose kin were thought lost during S'task's exodus (which is where the Rihannsu come from). Many ships were lost during that event, and the crews and passengers on those ships were presumed lost. Why could you not come from a small splinter group of those folk; recently discovered by Starfleet and attempting to reconnect with their Vulcan cousins?
For a Klingon in Federation service, you don't have to be related to Worf, you can be among a group of Klingons living in the Federation who chose not to go home. They liked it here.
My point with these examples is not that they are new, it is that you can use a great many ideas that are really simplejust don't overdo what you are doing. Make your bio make sense. Take the time to develop your idea, and don't be afraid to rewrite it!
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That is a very good point, that thought didn't occur to me.